Voting-machine



gi E? g? Patented Apr. 23

` REPUBLICAN. DEMOCRAT.

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P. S. MGGEE.

VOTING MACHINE.

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P. S. MGGEE.

VOTING MACHINE.

No. 537,990. Patented Apr. 23, 1895.

iN QQ R P i PJ' L l5 I o lo L i 'l Ld I es IN UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PATRICK S. MCGEE, OF ODGEVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

VOTING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 537,990, dated April 23, 1895.

Application tiled January 7, 1895. y Serial No. 534,121. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern.'

Bo it known that I, PATRICK S. McGEE, a resident of Dodgeville, in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Voting-Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specication.

This invention belongs to a class of Inachines intended to facilitate the operation of voting by simplifying the actions required, thereby shortening the time and enabling more voters to cast their ballots at one place In a given time, and it provides safeguards against the practice of repeating, or allow- Ing any person to vote more than once for the same candidate. It also provides for a registration of the number of votes cast for each person. It is fully explained and illustrated in this specification and the accompanying drawings.

Figure l shows a front elevation of the apparatus complete. Fig. 2 is a top viewr showing the gate and its connection with the locking bar. Fig. 3 is a top view of 'one of the locking bars, also showing the operating levers in their relative position as in No. l, of Fig. 5. Fig. 31- is a top View of apart of the locking bar when an operating lever is pulled down said movement engaging the lever with the latch lever i, which in turn pushes the locking bar endwise to the right and causing the lugs o of the locking bar to pass under all the other operating levers and lock them up at the same time it is locked down by its own lug passing over itself. See Fig. 5. Fig. 4 shows an elevation of one, and part of another, of the divisions seen in Fig. l, one of the division doors being open to show the operating lever and registering dials. Fig. 5 is a Vertical section taken on line x-m of Fig. 4, showinga side view of the operating lever and the devices for registering. Figs. 6 and 7show a side view of locking bar and the lparts moved by it, in section on line y, y, of

for any name not included in the party nomia nations. Fig. 9 is a vertical section taken on line to, w, in Figs. l, and 8.

The apparatus consists of a series of compartments arranged in columns, the number of divisions in each column being the same as the number of offices to be illed,and a column is provided for each political party and another for the independent voter. All the columns are marked conspicuously at the top with a party name and each division has the name of a candidate placed on its front. All the divisions are provided with the same mechanism and the divisions of the independent voters column to the right has additional mechanism to provide a card for the voter to write any name on he wishes to vote for. The divisions are independent of each other except in the locking arrangement by which all the divisions in each horizontal row are connected together so that the operation of one will lock all the others on that row. Each division is provided With alever h, to operate its mechanism, (see Fig. 5,) and also has a registering dial and sub-dialsto keep the count of the number of times the operating lever has been used in voting.

In Fig. 4 one of the divisionsis shown with the door, with which they are all provided, open to show the dials.

In Fig. 5 is shown a side View of the mechanism which consists of a horizontal shaft A, placed at about the centerof the division and having a large ratchet wheel w, on its back end, and at its front end a hand or pointer to indicate on the dial the number of times the ratchet wheel w, has been moved. A horizontal shaft B, is placed at right angles tothe shaft A, in front and near the bottom of the ratchet Wheel w. A collar d, is placed on the shaft B, and a spring hook g, is made fast to it, in position to have said spring hook catch in the teeth of the ratchet Wheel Io.

The operating lever h, is held on a stud fast in a bracket D attached to the inside of the case, and a small pawl r, is pivo'ted to the lower end of the lever h, so as to catch into a notch made into the collar d, and turn it over a little ways when the lever h, is pulled down, equal to one division on the ratchet wheel.

A recess is made in the lower side of the IOC collar CZ, to receive the end of the main spring s, which is connected by a link to one side of the recess. The lower end of the spring is made fast to the inside of the case and its object is to return the parts back to position after being moved.

It will readily be observed that when the operating lever h, is pulled down in the di-- rection of the arrow the pawl r, at the lower ro end will push the collar CZ, over a short distance so that the spring hook g, will draw over the ratchet wheel w, one notch which the stationary pawl u, will hold, and move the pointer on the face of the dial the same.

I5 The shaft A, which carries the pointers, that indicates on the large dial, w', is connected by a train of wheels with the shafts that carry the poi-nters for the small dials e', a', the first of which registers the number of whole revozo lutions the pointer of the large dial makes, and the latter the number of revolutions the pointer on dial e', makes. Thus the large dial registers the single movements of the operating lever Zt, up to one hundred and the dial e', registers the hundreds up to one thousand, and if there are fifty divisions on the dial d it will register the thousands up to fifty thousand or that number of votes.

A locking arrangement is provided whereby 3o any one of the operating levers Zt, having been pulled down, the other levers in that row will be locked up, and itself locked down so they cannot be moved until the gate has been opened. This prevents all repeating,

or voting more than once for the same candidate by one Voter. The locking arrangement is shown in Figs. 2, 3, 3%, G, and 7.

In Fig. 3 the locking bar is shown as a rectangular bar Z, with recesses o, made in the 4o front of it and having projections o on the side of said recess. One of these bars is placed in the lower front corner of each horizontal row of divisions so as to bring one of the recesses 0, overeach lever Zz.. (See Fig. 5.)

The bar Z, is held on flanged friction rolls n, to make it move easily. A knee lever t', is placed under the lockingbar Z, alittle to the left of each recess 0, on pivots held iu stands and made fast to the bottom of the division,

5o and a notch m, is made in the under side of the bar Z, over each knee lever. The operating lever Zt, is arranged to strike on one end of the knee levert', and cause the other end of said knee lever to catch into the notch m,

and move the locking bar Z, to the right soA as to keep all the other levers Zz, in that row from being pulled down again until the locking bar Z, is drawn back, said levers Zt, being held in position by the projections 0 until 6o the opening of the gate to which the locking bar is connected by a chain.

In referring to Fig. 5 the No. l position of operating lever 7L, corresponds with Fig. 6 or as ready to be pulled downward on to the knee lever t', the No. 2 position of operating lever h, corresponding with Fig. 7 or as operating lever Zz, trips the knee lever which in turn moves the locking bar a sufficient distance to prevent the remaining levers Zi., in that row from being pulled down, and the No. 3 position of operating lever Zt, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 5 represents when said lever h, is released by the hand of the voter, the main spring s carrying it back until it rests under the lug or projection o, until the voter passes through the gartep, said gate having a chain c, fastened to it, the other end of which is attached to the locking bar Z, which movement draws the bar to the left a short distance to allow the operating lever Zz., to go back into its recess 0. v

For an independent Voter who may wish to vote for a candidate not on the lists of either of the parties, a column of divisions to the right in Fig. l is provided. These divisions inthis column besides having all the registering and locking mechanism of the other divisions, has a crank arm a, made fast on the end of the shaft A, and connected at its lower end by a bar b,to a thin plate j, made to slide horizontally on the bottom of the division, and a case 71;, to hold a pile of blank cards is fastened to the inside of the division, and over the path of the plate j, so that when the lever Zz, is pulled down, the arm a., will move the platej, and push the bottom card out through the slot in the front of the division on to a shelf where the voter can write any name he chooses on it and deposit it in the opening t, in the front of the division, which leads to a box y, on the inside placed to receive the cards. A bell Zt is placed over the gato 1), so as to be rung when the gate is opened by the voter, and another bell CZ is placed in the upper part of each division in position to be struck every time the ratchet wheel w, moves a notch.

A lock is attached to the door of each division the key of which is held by the election officers and all access of the voters to anything but the operating lever is cut oli'.

This constitutes a simple and safe voting apparatus by which thevoter passes in through the gate to the machine in full view of others or in private as may be preferred, and selecting the candidates he desires to vote for, pulls down an operating lever for each and in so doing locks that lever so that he cannot pull it down again and vote twice for the same person nor can he vote for any other person for the same ofiice because of all the other operating levers being locked up and the chains c leading from the locking bars to the gate being protected by covers c', there is no way of releasing the operating levers but by opening the gate. lf the name ol' the person he wishes to vote for does not appear on any of the divisions he can goto the column of divisions for the independent voter and by drawing down the operating lever a card will be pushed IOO IIO

IZO

gate to unlock the levers by the opening of said gate, a receptacle for blank cards, devices for delivering one card for each movement of the operating' lever, and a receptacle to receive said card from the voter, substantially as described.

PATRICK S. MCGEE.

Witnesses:

JOHN E. GAMFIELD, JAMus H. MICKEY. 

